Darlie Routier
Real Name: Darlie Lynn Routier Case: Appeal Date: June 1996 Location: Rowlett, Texas Case Details: One night in June 1996, Darlie Routier was sleeping on the sofa of her family room with her two sons, Devon and Damon, asleep on the floor near her. Her husband, Darin, and other son, Drake, were asleep upstairs when Darlie awoke to a person standing over her. She screamed for her husband, and the assailant fled the house, dropping his knife on the way out. Darin began CPR procedures on his sons who had been badly stabbed. By time paramedics arrived, Devon was already dead; Damon died n the way to the hospital. Darlie was also treated for cuts and wounds across her body; one gash in her throat came close to severing a major artery. Incredibly, the police directed all their investigation against Darlie instead of looking for the assailant. They found undisturbed dust on a slashed window that suggested there was no entry by another person, but it was possible to enter the house through the window without affecting the dust. A hair believed to be Darlie's was connected to one of the officers. Foreign fingerprints were never identified. A sock found away from the house had the boys' blood on it, but it was impossible for Darlie to have left it there. The sock was never used to prove Darlie's innocence. The fact that there had been violent break-ins in the area at the same time at other houses did not dissuade the police. It was entirely possible that evidence was contaminated in the collection process. Several things worked against Darlie at her trial. It was too dark and quick for her to have made an identification of her attacker. None of her injuries were life-threatening. A videotape of her behavior while on medication was used against her. The police never examined any evidence that had nothing to do with Darlie as a suspect, probably because a veteran crime scene analyst who had exmined 21,000 crimes and 4,300 homicides told them that there was no intruder, which is simply an old trick that has been around longer than Darlie has been alive. She was accused of killing her boys for a life insurane policy, but it was only for $5,000, barely enough to cover the cost of the funerals. Darlie's family and friends rallied in her defense, and yet, she was still convicted of the murder of her sons. One juror on her case changed his opinion of her after re-examining photos of Darlie's inhuries; he's now more than convinced he accidentally convicted an innocent woman while a real killer wandered off scot free. Extra Notes: This case first aired on the August 24, 2001 episode. The case has also been featured on Court TV. Results: Solved. Darlie confessed. Darlie and her attorneys conceded that Darlie is the killer, as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals noted on May 21, 2003. "The appellant (Darlie) does not challenge the legal or factual sufficiency of the evidence to support her conviction..." Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Routier v. State, 112 S.W. 3d 554, 2004 Tex. Crim. App. Lexis 92, decision of May 21, 2003, 2nd paragraph. Links: No known links. ---- Category: Texas Category: 2001 Category: Murder Category: Wrongly-Accused Cases Category: Blood Print-Related Cases Category: Unresolved